CHAS: what it is and how to get accredited

CHAS (the Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme) is one of the UK's most widely recognised health and safety assessment schemes. It was set up in 1997 by local-authority health and safety professionals, which is part of why councils still name it so often in tenders. It is a founding member of SSIP, so a current CHAS assessment is recognised by the other SSIP member schemes and vice versa.

When public buyers ask for it

CHAS appears as a selection requirement on contracts involving physical or site work: construction, maintenance, facilities, cleaning, landscaping, transport and similar. The wording is usually "CHAS or equivalent SSIP scheme", because public buyers are expected to accept equivalents. If you already hold another SSIP member assessment (SafeContractor, SMAS Worksafe, Acclaim and others), you normally do not need CHAS as well; the mutual recognition covers you.

What the assessment covers

The core assessment checks your health and safety management against the SSIP core criteria: policy, risk assessments and method statements, training and competence, accident reporting, insurance and legal compliance. CHAS also sells broader packages whose checks extend beyond health and safety into areas such as environmental, quality and financial standing, aligned with the construction industry's Common Assessment Standard. For most public tenders the health and safety assessment is the part actually being demanded, so check what the tender requires before paying for a bigger package than you need.

How to get it

1. Apply on the CHAS website, choosing the package and the size band that matches your employee count. Firms with fewer than five employees are assessed proportionately, reflecting the lighter documentation the law requires at that size. 2. Submit your evidence through the online portal: policy documents, risk assessments and method statements, training records, insurance certificates, accident history. 3. An assessor reviews the submission and raises clarifications where evidence is missing or thin. You can usually fix and resubmit rather than fail outright. 4. Accreditation lasts twelve months, then renews.

Cost and time

Fees are banded by employee count and package, and change from time to time; a small firm should expect a few hundred pounds a year, and should check the CHAS site for current prices. Elapsed time depends almost entirely on how ready your documentation is: firms with their paperwork in order commonly complete assessment within days to a couple of weeks, while writing policies and risk assessments from scratch is the slower path. If a live tender demands accreditation, ask the scheme about assessment turnaround before you pay, and do not leave it until submission week.